In the production of crude oil, that crude oil is often sufficiently viscous to require the injection of steam into the petroleum reservoir. Ideally, the petroleum reservoir would be completely homogeneous and the steam would enter all portions of the reservoir evenly. But, often this does not occur. Instead, steam selectively enters a small portion of the reservoir while effectively bypassing other portions of the reservoir. Eventually, "steam breakthrough" occurs and most of the steam flows directly from an injection well to a production well, bypassing a large part of the petroleum reservoir.
It is possible to overcome this problem with various remedial measures, e.g., by plugging off certain portions of the injection well. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,470,462 and 4,501,329, which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes. But, to use these measures, one needs to find which portions of the reservoir are selectively receiving the injected steam. This is often a difficult problem.
Various methods have been proposed for determining how injected steam is being distributed in the wellbore. Bookout ("Injection Profiles During Steam Injection," SPE Paper No. 801-43C, May 3, 1967) summarizes some known methods for determining steam injection profiles and is incorporated by reference for all purposes.
The first and most widely used of these methods is the "spinner survey." A tool containing a freely rotating impeller is placed in the wellbore. As steam passes the impeller, it rotates at a rate that depends on the velocity of the steam. The rotation of the impeller is translated into an electrical signal, which is transmitted up the logging cable to the surface, where it is recorded on a strip chart or other recording device.
These spinners are greatly affected by the quality of the steam injected into the well, leading to unreliable results or results that cannot be interpreted in any way.